What You Believe In

Be careful about what you digest. I’m not talking about politics or anything like that. I’m talking about you. Let me give you a few examples.

Many of you have come across me because of storage auctions. The first day I was on the auction trail, I met this very nice guy named Dan. He’d been out there on the storage auction trail about 20 years. I told him I wanted to make storage auctions a full-time endeavor. He said, “No. Don’t do that to yourself.” He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Look. Keep it part-time. This business is just going to break your heart. I’ve been trying to make it full-time for 20 years, but I could not let my main gig go.”

He was a plumber. He did contract plumbing work and went to auctions. About a year into it, I was talking to Dan and he said, “You’re really good for a newcomer.”

I said, “Well I try.”

A year after that I had the store and warehouse and he said, “So you came out here with a lot of money?”

I said, “No, I actually started with $1350 from a garage sale.”

He just looked at me. He said, “You’re lying.” He got upset with me.

I said, “I’m not lying to you.”

Let me tell you what Dan’s problem was. When you tell yourself something over and over again that you can’t do something, guess what? You’re not going to do it. Dan had been telling himself for 20 years he could not be a full-time storage auction buyer. When I met Dan, he had 20 years of experience on me.

What was the difference between Dan and me?

Number 1 – I had goals before I even went out there. I didn’t know what storage auctions were about. I’d heard about them, but I didn’t really know. I went out with the expectation to be successful. This is something I learned from one of my sales managers. He said before every sales presentation, tell yourself you’re going to nail it.

Now we live in America where you are supposed to be humble. You’re supposed to be very thankful and happy when shit goes right You’re not supposed to say, “I’m going to go in there and nail this presentation. I’m going to knock their socks off.” You’re not supposed to say that because that’s not humble.

I learned to expect good things. Sometimes you will seriously crash and burn. That’s okay. When you expect things to go well, most of the time they do.

Let’s go back to the storage auction business. I found out Dan started bad mouthing me saying I was arrogant and high and mighty. He said he taught me everything I knew. Then the people who heard him say that said, “If he taught you, why can’t he do what you’re doing?”

I said, “Hey. There’s your answer right there.”

What happened was I created this paradox that made Dan’s belief system start to crash. When it crashed, he had to accept the reality that he did not do the right things. It was a bitter pill to swallow, because for 20 years he’d been telling himself he couldn’t be a full-time storage auction buyer. He made it come true.

Then I came out there and did what he had wanted to do for 20 years in two years. He was not happy with me, because I held up a mirror to his face that said your belief system is flawed. So, we went through that. Bad narratives like what Dan told himself actually crowd out the possibilities.

We’re talking about what you tell yourself. By telling yourself negative things, they crowd out the possibilities. They grow like a cancer and take over your thoughts.

For a long time, I wanted to be a writer. The time was never right for me. I could never sit down and chase my dream. When I got in the storage auction business, it was an adventure. The storage auction business solved that hunger for writing because there were so many narratives out there in each and every unit.

After I got sick and I started healing up, I started writing again. During that period of time, I started networking with other writers. The world of writing is full of people who don’t believe in themselves. I see it every day. I see it in forums. They are conditioning their mind for failure. This is why you have to be very careful what you believe in.

A friend of mine has been published. She’s written about 30 books. She’s a serious deal. This is what she told me after seeing my first manuscript. “You need to take five or six years, work on your craft and then put your work out there.” That’s what she told me. Now, she’s a romance writer and I was writing a business book. People tend to hate things that are not in their genre.

There were many times over my life when I was told I would never be anything. I was from a single parent household. I was one of those kids. There were three of us.

When we were growing up, we were told we wouldn’t do shit because of our circumstances. You can’t believe that. You can’t digest that. It’s a dangerous thing. People want labels and to define you because it makes them comfortable dealing with you. That is probably the reason I am not on TV.

I had five opportunities to be on TV. I just refused to play ball, straight up. I refused to believe in other people’s narratives.

You have to believe in yourself. Whatever wild ass scheme you have in your head, until you try it, you don’t know where it will go. The biggest impediment to your success is not you, it’s the people around you and what they say to you consistently.

In 2009, I told a friend I was going to start a YouTube channel. They asked me, “Why do you want to do YouTube? That shit’s for kids.” I said, “No. It’s a great medium. It’s powerful.”

There were about six people who told me it was a silly idea. Did I listen? I guess not. When you know you are on a good path, you have to have confidence in yourself to move forward.

When someone says something that is highly detrimental to your mental state, you have to say, “That’s not true for me.” I refuse it. You have to make that decision mentally.

I recommend meditation. It is like exercise for the mind. It helped me focus.

Part of keeping your mental playground clean is being diligent about what you let enter your mind. That’s the reason I don’t watch TV a lot. If you watch TV too long, you start to accept narratives that are not true.

You can script your own narrative. Don’t accept what you’re told when it is counter to what you believe. You have a choice.

Your brain is the beginning and the end of your success. You have to get yourself focused on the right things and work hard, then you will be successful.

Having a work ethic and the ability to start and finish projects will take you further in life than all the brilliance and talent in the world.

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